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MINNEAPOLIS - Tracy Claeys has spent the best years of his career toiling in anonymity, building a name for himself as an assistant coach outside of college football's most competitive division.

Then, he got to Minnesota in 2011, where he accomplished his greatest honor as a professional: He finally was making enough money to be able to pay off his student loans from his college days. At the age of 42.

That's how long a road it has been, Minnesota's acting head coach said with a chuckle earlier this week. That's how strong his commitment to making it in an all-too-often unforgiving profession has been.

Nobody in the Big Ten will be laughing today if Claeys and the 7-2 Golden Gophers are able to beat Penn State at TCF Bank Stadium. The Nittany Lions happen to be the opponent that stands between Minnesota and history. If the Gophers get the victory, Penn State will be the fourth consecutive Big Ten opponent they've beaten, a feat not accomplished in Minneapolis since 1973.

"I think every win we get form here on out, if we're able to add some more wins, would show the progress we're making," Claeys said. "We're trying to establish new standards here." That never promised to be an easy job, and the fact that Claeys is running the show from the sidelines is evidence of that. This team of assistant coaches running the team may not be well-known nationally, but they're all their boss really knows.

Minnesota head coach Jerry Kill, the outgoing optimist who speaks through a soft southern drawl and has built powerhouses at pretty much every one of the lower levels of football the NCAA has to offer, has battled epilepsy throughout his life. Since taking over as head coach at Minnesota in 2011, he has suffered through seizures on the sidelines. Last month, before a game against Michigan on Oct. 5, he suffered another and couldn't even travel to the game. Ever since, he has cut back his workload. He said he'll watch every game the rest of the season from the press box, because that's where he can best help his team.

But it helps to have a group of assistants on the sideline good enough to have led the Gophers to a 3-1 record in his absence, and wins over Northwestern, Nebraska and Indiana. A group of coaches who have helped Kill see the progress that, sometimes, got clouded by the losses.

"I didn't step back on purpose," Kill said. "But sometimes, you have to step back. When I came back and went to practice after the Northwestern game, our kids seemed to be popping around pretty good. I think that Northwestern game did a lot for the kids and the coaches. I go to practice, and I don't have to say hustle or get your tail end in gear. They do it. Because of the adversity, the players have rallied, and the coaches have rallied. Together."

Most of the coaches on the staff have been rallying with Kill for their entire coaching lives.

Seven of the 10 assistants on Kill's coaching staff have been with him more than 10 years, a rarity in a world of ladder-climbing coaches who all-too-often go where the money is.

Claeys has been a Kill understudy since 1994 at Saginaw Valley State. He gave up a $21,000-per-year job as a high school teacher and assistant football coach, which is more than his parents made. It took them a while to accept that was part of chasing his dream of being a coach, Claeys said.

Money was tight and the road bumpy pretty much everywhere he went. But like so many of his current assistants - strength coordinator Eric Klein, tight ends coach Rob Reeves and offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover, to name a few - he always wound up following Kill.

He followed him to another Div. II school, Emporia State, in 1999. Then, to Div. I-AA Southern Illinois in 2001. They didn't hit the Football Bowl Subdivision until 2008 at Northern Illinois, and even that was at the mid-major level.

"I just think we have a great appreciation and respect for where we're at now," Claeys said. "There are good coaches at all levels, all schools you play against. The biggest difference as you move up is that you get bigger and better players. But at some places, you're even your own academic coordinator. You do it all."

Penn State coach Bill O'Brien praised Claeys and Kill, who he called a few weeks ago to offer support during the worst of his health battles. Often throughout the past two seasons, O'Brien praised his own team's resilience and tenacity, and he said he sees the same type of attitude in the players at Minnesota.

"Give Jerry and his staff a lot of credit," O'Brien said. "They've done a great job of coaching these kids and recruiting for the type of football they want to play. I can't say enough about Jerry Kill and his staff."

Today, Minnesota has a chance to make history, led by a coaching staff that certainly would appreciate the chance to make it.

But Kill said the coaching staff only deserves part of the credit.

"I think it's a team of great kids who, because of some adversity, could have gone the wrong way," Kill said. "And they went the other way."

Contact the writer: dcollins@timesshamrock.com @psubst on Twitter

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